Wait even after they are down. Several years ago I shot a buck walking away from me from an elevation of 15ft. I shot between the shoulder blades and he went right down. When i pulled the trigger I saw a 5 inch piece of hide disappear between the sholders telling me I hit my mark. So many times in the past when a deer was hit that hard they were DRT. I gathtered my rifle and pack and came down the latter. Just a few feet away, I saw that this buck was taking a few large labored breaths. As I moved to one side to finish him off, he opened his eyes, looked at me jumped up and bounded away. This was a close encounter of the venison kind! This was in Wood county and in thick cover. To top it off it had been raining. As I stood there cussing my self, I heard a twig break and looked to see the buck standing broadside about 40yrds away. A second round behind the shoulder put a finish to what I had started. Had I waited he may have been done right there or had he gotten up I would have had a quick finish shot. Won't make that error again.

Z

Yes, Texas Dan, the overlooked deer. I was hunting with my cousin, who’s an excellent shot, and who loves to give me grief if, God forbid, I miss. So, I was up a tree and was looking for a fat doe to walk out in the bean field. And here came 3, so I picked the fat one. She was quartering toward me at 80yards, and I shot her in the front left quarter, where the bullet should hit heart/lungs. Waited a while and went to get her. No deer. I walked all over. No blood. Here came the cousin and he helped look and we found no deer. That got him to wildly laughing that I had missed. Honestly, no way I missed. No way at all. Still though, no deer. Finally gave up looking, went to the house, and came back the next morning. There HAS to be a dead deer here somewhere in these woods. It was a fairly open wooded area and all the leaves were down. Here came the cuz again to have more fun over my alleged miss. He was having the time of his life over my misery and just would not believe that I made the shot. So, we gave up again and I got ready for the next 10 years of kidding, but while walking out I saw a hoof. It was sticking out of some leaves. And there was the fat doe. I had shot her in the heart, and she took off like a rocket, as they often do, died in mid stride and slid under the thick carpet of leaves. The cousin shut up, thank goodness, and I haven’t heard any guff from him in a while.

Heck yeah. One of hour guys anchored a 10 point buck but was still moving its head. He left blind 5 minutes later to get his truck not too far away and when he got back, the deer was gone. We looked for hours. Only blood was where he dropped. Pretty frustrating he didn't put another shot in him. He lost 2 bucks that year and shot a 2 year old 8 that was outside the ears... He fixed his gun luckily.

^^ this - exactly.

Should even be practiced at the range (reloading WITHOUT taking eyes off target and firing 2nd round ).
I teach my 8-year old 4-H'rs to reload their bb-rifles without taking eyes off target; surely you big-boys with your 300wsm can do the same . . .

What? you guys only take 1 round up into the blind ????? One Shot Heros ???
The whole mindset here is wrong; shouldn't be thinking 'After THE shot' ... should be 'after the FIRST shot' . ..
Instead of 'waiting', checking your email/txt-msg, etc you should be 'Scanning like a hawk - instantly ready to fire that 2nd round should that buck suddenly move/stir/stand up'.... You LOST that deer the second you take your eyes off it, less you watched it do the 'death dance' ...

The last hog I shot hit the ground immediately and started kicking as if it had been hit solid. About 15 seconds later, it politely got back on its feet and started to trot off. It took another round from my 30-30 to put him down for good.

X2 Tracking at night sucks in general. I much prefer some other kind of light than a super bright LED flashlight, it seems to fade the color and make it harder to pick out blood for me.

To follow up on this, in my experience if you shoot an animal and it falls over and kicks for a minute and then gets up you better get another bullet in it or you probably will not find it.

Also remember that if a deer is running in a straight line just after a shot, it may peel off in one direction or another as it get close to expiring. That may also be right about the time the blood trail starts to fade since the deer is likely losing blood pressure in the case of a good lung shot.

I've had two instances like this that come to mind where I was following a good blood trail and then it petered out. One fat cactus buck I shot was going up a hill, and I followed in the general direction it had been heading but couldn't find it. I got my wife and son to help and we started doing search patterns knowing it could not have gone far based on the good lung blood trail I had. When we found it the trail had curled off to the left in a wide spiral as he got weak and then crashed under a big mesquite and cactus patch.

Another was a doe I shot with a 300wsm. Perfect behind the shoulder shot and she ran across a wide sandy creek bed and up the other side. I had a great blood trail. When I got to the far bank, the trail faded and I thought she had continued up the bank in the same direction she had been running. I searched for the better part of an hour before I found that she had veered left just as she got up on that bank , ran another 20 yards or so, and then fell back into the creek bed behind a clump of tall grass.

Good post.

I've often wondered if the loss of blood pressure causes a deer to go blind during those final seconds so that it really doesn't know where it's headed. I can remember two instances where I watched a deer that I had shot run straight into trees. The first time it happened I wasn't sure if it was the bullet wound that killed it or breaking its neck on the tree. An old timer had a term for this too which he called "running dead". I took his point as being that deer and other wild animals can still run with fatal wounds to the heart and lungs until their blood and blood pressure is totally exhausted. But then, bow hunters would likely call this a fact.